Wednesday, April 7, 2010

I very much enjoyed a seminar recently with a colleague Paul Dunn who is known internationally as ‘the wizard of wow’.

I also love getting emails from Paul who often signs off with be sure to keep on doing things that amaze you.

Here are 5 ways you can do things that amaze you:

1. Little things make the big difference:

One of my favourite sayings comes from Anita Roddick, the Founder of The Body Shop. She said If you don’t believe little things make a big difference then you have never been to bed with a mosquito.

Take a look at all that you do for family, friends, and work mates and ask are they saying wow about my actions? And then change what you need to so that all your actions are ones that mean people say wow.

2. Embrace sustainability, it’s actually simple

Governments, as evidenced by the monumental failure of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, the posturing of some big businesses only interested in themselves, and the emergence of more bureaucracies, means sustainability can appear to be complex and out of reach for small to medium enterprises.

Forget what other people are or aren’t doing. Do the right thing by people and our planet yourself! And if you are in business consider that building a business that is good for people and our planet can actually make you more money! Don't’ believe me? Give me a call sometime. I can prove this beyond any shadow of a doubt.

3. Innovation is only possible when your culture allows it

In conducting my research for my conference and event presentations worldwide it is crystal clear to me that most business cultures make it hard for employees to turn information into insight into inspiration into ideas and therefore innovation, the successful implementation of an idea, rarely happens.

Does the culture of your business mean innovation is easy? And how about at home. Is innovation easy there too?

If you are doing what you’ve always done, most likely you are getting what you’ve always got. Is is time to change who you are and what you do?

4. People need big reasons to really be personally responsible

Best-selling author Daniel Pink has proved clearly that most business leaders do not understand motivation which is why a majority of employees do not produce their best work on a consistent basis.

Pink suggests that there are three primary motivators for us all:Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives
Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters
Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

In your home and workplace and wherever else you gather are these three motivators being met?

5. Enlightened self-interest is an old idea that can make your life and business new again

Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong), ultimately serve their own self-interest.

It has often been simply expressed by the belief that an individual, group, or even a commercial entity will "do well by doing good"

In contrast to enlightened self-interest is simple greed or the concept of "unenlightened self-interest", in which it is argued that when most or all persons act according to their own myopic selfishness that the group suffers loss as a result of conflict, decreased efficiency because of lack of cooperation, and the increased expense each individual pays for the protection of their own interests.

All over the world I have seen ‘unenlightened self-interest’ destroy businesses, families, and lives in general. The good news is that I have also seen productivity and positivity go through the roof when the awesome power of ‘enlightened self-interest’ is at work.

Is enlightened self-interest driving you? Could you do more for your world and therefore for yourself?

Be remarkable
Ian
Founder Differencemakers CommunitySign-uphere for a least one free resource per month and to get your complimentary copy of my ebook Differencemakers - how doing good is great for business.

PS Do you live in or near Dubai, Toronto, Chicago, Manchester, Oxford, Singapore, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, or Adelaide? These are the cities for this years differencemakers master-class that I am honoured to be co-presenting with Innovator of the Year Alexander Blass, and a special guest presenter in each city. This master-class explores the incredible impact we can all make by combining sustainability, innovation, and social entrepreneurship. Find out more here.

About Differencemakers Community Blog

The authors of this blog are all members of differencemakers community a participatory third place for people worldwide who are changing what needs to be changed and looking to increase the scale of their differencemaking.